For Immediate Release Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7100 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Human remains The remains of three persons were found in the tomb, although there are hints that earlier tomb contents may have been removed by terrace residents and re-interred elsewhere before the tomb was sealed. One person was interred in a seated position and wore a single green stone bead, both signs that the occupants of this complex were privileged and that those interred in the tomb had high status. Some of the bones found in a wall niche were covered with red paint. The tomb included three wall niches, each filled with ceramic vessels. Twenty-five ceramic vessels dating to the latter part of the Classic period (c. AD 500-700) were found. Remnants of another 11 vessels, along with six loose teeth fit with stone drill plugs and having other dental modifications, were discovered in front of the door or on the steps leading down to the tomb. Interestingly, the tomb was not used during the entire occupation of the residential complex. The entrance was sealed over by a thick plastered patio floor and the tomb remained out of use during a series of subsequent re-buildings. It appears that before 1000 AD, the residential complex on the terrace was abandoned, as most of El Palmillo’s thousands of residents left this hilltop location. When in use, the tomb was reached by the stone stairway that led down from the central patio of this residential complex. Over subsequent centuries, burials continued to occur in the sediments above and in the vicinity of this residential tomb. Archaeologists Feinman and Nicholas have been excavating at El Palmillo every summer since 1999. In prior seasons, they excavated tombs on other terraces in which much sediment had seeped in, making the excavation of dirt from the tomb contents an exceedingly slow process. This tomb, however, was free of debris and relatively undamaged. “The tomb was well constructed, which kept soil and rubble out, but not water,” Dr. Feinman said. “The wet and dry cycles decomposed the bodies and some of the bones.” Continue